Scot McCloughan isn’t talking today (at least to me), so the big-picture questions I have about the technical construct of this new-age 49ers hierarchy will go left unasked (at least to him)…

Next-best option: Just throw my questions up on this blog, then head over to Tom Cable’s season-ending presser for more interim/not-interim fun.

I obviously support the hiring of Mike Singletary as the 49ers permanent head coach. I give a nod to those who say the 49ers might’ve been able to do better, at least in an offensive sense, if they’d waited and played out a national search (good point, Lowell C).

But I just don’t think the 49ers are set up in a way that would result in a great national coaching search. They don’t know how to do that–they want to fall in love, and if you do a search, you’re just asking for a fast-talker to brown-nose his way into full power. Ergo: 2005.

My sense was that the 49ers can’t do any better than Singletary, who has done everything you could’ve asked an interim to do, and more. They ought to know that. They did know that. They did a smart thing by lining this up last week and nailing it down yesterday.

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Now the questions…

* Does Singletary report to the GM (McCloughan), as Mike Nolan did this season?

* Or does Singletary report to new team president/owner Jed York, as Nolan basically did from 2005 to last January?

These are key points. I want to know if Singletary is McCloughan’s peer or if he out-ranks McCloughan or if this is still McCloughan’s show, all the way, “trigger” and all.

I guarantee you that the 49ers and Singletary had detailed discussions last week to spell this out. If they say they didn’t… well, that’s probably the first sign of SPIN in the Singletary Era.

And if they REALLY didn’t have conversations about the Singletary/McCloughan power ranking, then it’s the first sign of wilfull dysfunction in the Singletary Era. You need to have this clear before starting up again. You just have to.

Maybe someday the 49ers will tell us about it. The first question I’d like to ask Scot: Is your relationship with Singletary going to be EXACTLY like it was with Nolan in 2005 or 2008 or totally different from both Nolan incarnations?

* What say does Singletary have in personnel matters? McCloughan and Nolan were incredibly blurry about this last January. The only thing we know is that it was supposed to be McCloughan’s final call, with input from Nolan.

Is Singletary going to inherit the 2008 personnel construct? Will he have more say? Less say? Does he want say?

* Why do Jed and McCloughan think Singletary succeeded, in a 5-4 record, and Nolan did not? That’s a key thing for me. I want to know what specifically they think Singletary brought and how it translated to long-term success.

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I think Singletary HAD to be hired permanently. However, I’m not sure how long “intensity” can be sustained, over the long haul. The NFL is a technique and precision and talent league.

* What’s the philosophy on the offensive coordinator position? I don’t expect the 49ers brass to tell us names. I just want to know: What are the traits you’re looking for in a new off-coor to replace Mike Martz?

* Jed just put in another layer, on paper, of hierarchy, by appointing himself president.

What happens, if anything, to Lal Heneghan, Paraag Marathe, Andy Dolich and the many other VPs and pseudo-VPs they have on staff?

Up? Down? More powerful? Gone?

If the 49ers want to give some answers, I’ll darn sure be listening… and asking some more questions.

Tim Kawakami

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I don’t think intensity is Singletary’s best assest. i think HE is intense and that rubs off on people, for how long that will be seen, but he’s already been in the organization for a few years now and it seems fresh to the players. I think he is Excellent at knowing what he wants his team to be, and he has given every player on the team a chance to be that type of player. So I think it gives Scot a clear idea of what players he should go out and get. He is also excellent at breaking a teams tendencies down. You could never fool Singletary the player nor the coach it seems, and the niners don’t look fooled anymore. I don’t think Scot will be around if he trys to fool Singletary.

John

Tim,
You seem to make the same mistake many make is assigning the “intensity” label to Singletary as his only strength as a coach. Many people seem to ignore the fact that he immediately changed the offensive philosophy of the team, changed the starting QB after one half of a game and changed both starting offensive guards and one starting tackle (that is 3 out of 5 offensive linemen). He also fired the OL coach. Not stopping their, he dumped the silly “hybrid” defense and told the DC to go with a stronger 3-4, keeping the base players on the field more (and perhaps more importantly, keeping Justin Smith in his natural position rather than moving him to 3 positions contantly). He starting playing Manny Lawson again. Our defense moved from 25th to 15th in the league and improved even more in points allowed. On top of that turnover dropped off and point increased.

He did all of this while risking the chance that change would impact his changes to get the job full time. At the time of his hire, I was not excited. I have totally changed my tune as I have seen that he is a much better coach than I anticipated.

I think we can stop saying that Mike Singletary is just a motivational coach. I must also disagree with your notion that intensity isn’t a prime factor in the NFL. Most of these players are very close in terms of talent (remove the superstars). What sets the others apart is intensity (playing at full speed for 60 minutes) and intellengence (not making mistakes).

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2008 tcbaytown

I’ not of the mind to register a strong vote of confidence for Singletary, rationalizing that he was the “popular” choice, not necessarily the best choice. Fans and media alike have taken a special liking to this all pro/all world LB. His HC resume is weak, but his credentials as a leader are legendary. Strong motivator is a trait that is often written to characterize his managerial attributes. As most successful managers know, you can’t get by on motivating alone, after a while they stop listening……unless, of course, you are winning. It will be interesting to see if this legend can continue to build on his resume, sustain a winning atmosphere, and return a winning tradition to the 49ers. I am in favor of giving minimal player personnel decisions to the HC. It is time for McCloughan to be put on the clock for his selections……Singletary will have enough on his plate. I would like nothing better than to be wrong about my thought process right now. It is time for this organization to get back on the winning track.

RC

TK trying to stir the pot THE DAY AFTER he signs his deal. no honeymoon here, just lots of usual hate that is forever alienating himself from all the bay area teams.

Who cares about a national coaching search to find a better offensive coach? Dont we have highly paid offensive coordinators to scheme a good game plan? Singletary took that lowlife O’Sullivan out of the lineup, forced Martz to play Hill and it only results in a 88+ quarterback ranking for the rest of the season. Explain to me again how that doesnt show that this “Intenstity and Defensively minded head coach” can’t coach offense? Oh yeah, he doesnt have to. He just has to tell Martz to bench his lovefest JTO and go with someone with actual skills. Hill comes in and does what he does, WIN. But oh no, we need someone better that Singletary! His intensity can’t last! He has only been this intense since he was born but this wont translate to any success for the Niners long term. His interm hire only made for the best 9 weeks of Niner football that I can remember since the Garcia-TO days.

I am so very happy that the Niners are back to caring about football and TK is back to caring about if Jed’s body language means that he is unhappy…..or maybe hungry…….or is he thinking about football?? These are important questions of course..if you live in LA and read STAR magazine. Please stop the nonsense and please concentrate on the fact that the Niners look focused and determined under Singletary. The exact opposite of why you cant cheer for the “I dont give an F” Raiders Team.

Go Niners

The Niners had a top 8 defense in points given up the last 7 weeks of the season. It is not intensity, it is attention to detail and actually giving an F about what happens on sunday. Of course you can sustain intensity, these are gigantic people crashing into each other 20 times a year and need intensity. The Nine

Mike W

Honestly Tim, I know he stuck up for you during that debacle at Raiders HQ, but Lowell Cohn is a washed-up hack stuck in the glory days of Bill Walsh and Eddie D. He would rule out anyone without ties to the West Coast offense or Walsh coaching tree. With Holmgren taking ’09 off (and quite possibly burned out from a rough year) there wasn’t anyone better than Singletary out there who would have worked for the Yorks. As for doing “better in the offensive sense”, how much background on offense did Mike Smith – a top coach of the year candidate – have before taking the Atlanta job? Funny what drafting a franchise QB and signing a Pro Bowl RB can do to one’s “offensive philosophy”…

Bob

#2 John, good analysis, which is something beyond TK’s capabilities.

TK is very good at creating controversy real or imagined. But TK does blog more than most bay area sports writer and that fact alone keeps bringing me back. (Why does Janny Hu of SFC have a Warriors blog when she blogs every two weeks with a paragraph or two?)

Given the Yorks, hiring Mike Singletary is the best they could accomplish. I would rather have Singletary than the Greatest Coaching Search Part II lead by Paraag Marthe. At least there is some hope for the future for Niners fans.

Lance Newberry

I agree with just about all of TKs points. They are valid because a team can get better and even get into the playoffs with a questionable organizational structure, but they never become truly great and then maintain their quality long-term. We see teams rise for a season or two and then fall back all the time; do we want to just get better or do we want to be GREAT again?

What will make that difference will be the front office leadership (and who they decide to run the offense) and those are real questions to be asked right now, they deserve to be asked and answered.

We really know nothing about Jed York, and McC has gotten a pass on the many poor personnel decisions made during his time, with Nolan taking the blame there. The team has quite a few good players, but they/he have done almost nothing right at bringing in GREAT players with the high draft picks they’ve had and the big money free agents the York’s have agreed to buy. How exactly that is going too change and who is going to be ultimately responsible are real, vital questions, and apparently they know how they’re going forward with all this so let’s hear the answers now.

Singletary seems to be a very good, possibly great leader, which involves much more than just motivation or intensity; if that’s all he’s got we’re doomed. But he seems to know how to be a quality manager of people, which is a vital piece to any top management position and is often overlooked in the X & O, rah rah obsessed NFL.

But to take the team beyond first round playoff losses Singletary is going to need the people above him to be excellent as well (and there is very little evidence at this point to support that they will be) and he is going to need to show that he is much more than just another smashmouth, out-hit ’em out-execute ’em ‘ol ball coach, because that will only take us so far.

The Boy King Jed could be great, or he could be just another ego-maniac/profit driven slug. Hiring Singletary was a good decision but it was the easy, obvious move and it doesn’t show us much about how he’ll be different than his sluggish father, and how he answers TKs questions with words and actions will show us much more.

BTW, it sure was nice to see the team in their true uniforms yesterday.

Roscoe

I’m not going to criticize the selection of Mike Singletary. He is probably deserving based on his interim performance; and he is the best we could probably hope for under the Yorks. I said a year ago that they would never hire a good football man as president because they would not block Jed’s preordained ascension. That proved true. And that also blocks the hire of a strong, established coach or GM because people like that would not work for Jed, or his folks. That leaves only Scott & Mike, or someone else of their unproven stature. And as a die-hard 49er fan since 1957 I hope it all works.

Unfortunately, I cannot shake the belief that in 2009 Martz will be gone in favor of a grind-it-out OC, as Singletary changes the offense back to what it was under Nolan; and, thereby undoes much of the offensive explosiveness, and late season success we’ve enjoyed this season. Despite his better qualities, Singletary still has too much Nolan and Ravens philosophy in his gut. After Singletary’s mid-season promotion his innate conservatism and Martz’ wild flamboyance blended to produce a safe, yet explosive offense that was more than Singletary wanted and less than Martz wanted, but an effective blend – I hope they can keep that together for another year.

gmoney

The one thing that gives me solace in all this is the fact that Jed and Eddie D are close. Godfather as it is. Debartolo learned the hard way that the fastest way to success is to get good football people and support them 100% while, at the same time, expecting nothing less than excellence. When confronted with a tough call who do you think Jed will call? A phonecall his father would never make under any circumstance. I see Jed as our link back to the past, to greatness and to glory. I expect overtures to be made to Holmgren to come on as an adviser for the next year as he relaxes in Santa Cruz upon which I could see him taking a Parcell’s like role in the Niner Organization (remember, he was a QB at Lincoln High in the sunset and a niner fan like us). I believe we will move back to a west coast offense which, I happen to believe, Hill will excel in given his quick decision making. I also like what that system would do for Robinson and Delaney Walker.

Finally, the question becomes who will be our offensive coordinator? I say get Steve Young on the job. More than smart enough to fit the bill I can also see him as a head coaching candidate years down the line. I believe he and a slew of Hall of Fame former players are dying to help this organization get back to the glory days. A group of people the Yorks worked actively to alienate.

Please

You’re such a drama queen Kamakazi. Singletary is focused on winning football games. He’s not like Nolan who needed all the power to feel more like a man. He wants to win and it’s up to McCloughan to get the players to do it. So far he’s off to a good start — can’t blame McCloughan for not playing the younger players. That was all Nolan. Sing starts getting them involved and what do ya know? McCloughan looks pretty good right now.

GetReal

Tim, maybe the reason McCloughan won’t talk to you is because he has read your work covering the Niners. your the biggest hater out there.

Tom Flores..(Monterey Kid)

Good question: How is Singletary different than Nolan?

Both defensive minded guys, granted Singletary was a player and may connect with the current players, but how far can that take a team?

Singletary left the offense to Martz

Crescent

How many of all the following great coaches of the last 10 years were motivators first and tacticians second – Belichick, Coughlin, Gruden, Cowher, Dungy, Shanahan

Only Cowher.

Singletary – great guy, great to have as a coordinator. Not a long-term good head coach – over the course of a full season, he would be outcoached numerous times by the opposing side. No one has ever benefitted so much from rock-bottom expectations as Singletary. The world is setting him up for immense disappointment in 2H 2009.

Jed York – Total idiot. 2 years doing grunt work evaluating other firms’ mutual or hedge funds is the best thing on his resume. Notre Dame degree via legacy. Fouled up the Santa Clara stadium. Fouled up the Nolan hire. Some 28-year-olds have the intrinsic intellect and management skills to get it done. Think Theo Epstein (but he was hired on merit). No shred of evidence at all this 28-year-old is any better than your average village idiot.

TechNiner

if martz gets the boot, who would be a viable option in regards to mike singletary’s coveted smashmouth football philosophy?

gmoney

How is Singletary different than Nolan? Well, lets see. They coached the same team in the exact same year with the exact same players. Under nolan the team was a disaster with a losing streak of what? 7? Under singletary they won five out of their last seven games. Their offense went from being 3 and out kings to a team that can hold the ball and control clock. Their defense went from close to dead last to being 15th in the leage AND (this is most important) they went from being horrible in the red zone defensively to being 7th in the league, not to mention the fact that we now get off the field on third down more often than not. The difference is huge. He also played Hill, moved to a 3-4 permanently and gave our O line the makeover it needed.

Take all your fancy offensive minded coaches, have them take over when singletary did and I guarantee you they would have done no better. Who could ask for anything more from Singletary? This guy is a diamond and we were lucky enough to get him. Be thankful and stop complaining.

Buzz

“I’m not sure how long “intensity” can be sustained, over the long haul. The NFL is a technique and precision and talent league.”

Look at the Cowboys: lots of talent. The Broncos: excellent technique. The Dolphins: fewest turnovers due to focus on technique and precision. Intensity can create cohesiveness: desire to work hard; practice timing, technique and trust.

What wins games is NOT talent ( though that is helpful!). It’s focus, technique, desire. Changing sports: Tiger Woods is not the most accurate driver, nor the longest; his putting average is also not in the top five. But when it comes to focus, precision and technique under pressure….

sscl

Fire Martz ? Well all you pain in the behind guys saying give Jed york a chance…….WE’ll he’s now shown he is liKE his ludicrous father not like his uncle. Didnt they say Sing decides his staff??? It Mooch all over again. THIS ORGANIZATION SUCKS!

Didnt a lack of NFL exlperience (NOlan) teach this dysfuntional family anything?

Deftoned40oz

firing martz was singletarey’s choice..read the report..and thats fine by me..i dont have a prob with letting go the mastermind of an offense where ur qb is left vulnerable time and time again, sacked 4 to 5 times a game, and helps contribute to the team become tied for last in turnover margin..jto can follow him wherever he goes next for all i care..real genius martz is huh?

john rauch

Did Singletary talk about the new hierarchy in his press conference, or leave any clues? I agree it is very important how the power (roles and responsibilities) is shared amongst he and Jed and McCloughan.

Is it surprising to hear McCloughan never had a meaningful discussion with Martz? How can a GM go a whole year and not talk to the coordinator? Seems irresponsible if not unprofessional.

My New Year’s prediction for McCloughan is he will be out or demoted by Jan 2010. Singletary knows what he wants in a football team and McLoughan had better deliver. The upcoming draft is going to be somewhat of an acid test for Scotty.

Troll Alert

sscl-

Why do you post the same nonsense under different names?? Quite a troll me thinks:

Every Great football team has to be GREAT at something (be it Offense or Defense). The 49ers under Nolan haven’t been either. I think Singletary will demand a Top 5 Defense that focuses on POWER and big guys hitting. Not tweeners that Nolan put out there. He will demand a physical offensive line. Proven with his immediate insertion of Chilo Rachel. Who by the way played extremely well. In fact, the winning streak took off once he was inserted. I see the 49ers turning into the Jacksonville Jaguars (of last year). Martz reminds me of Don Nelson. Always trying to out think you. Playing small ball because you don’t have the big guys. That only goes so far until someone punches you in the mouth (like Philly). Singletary = BACK TO BASICS. And I’ll bet the offense will still be a 50/50 run-pass split.

Assy McGee

Singletary being retained was a no brainer, as was the Martz firing. And mind you, this is only the beginning. I suspect we’ll see a lot more of the “Nolan guys” being shown the door, with a few surprises thrown in. For starters, we know Smith, Jennings, Banta-Cain and that load Abrayo Franklin will go. But what’s the over/under on Davis hanging on for another year? What has he done to merit another look? Nothing, unless your thing is dropped passes, false starts and over celebratory 6 yard gains. And with the emphasis shifting to the run. . .well, unless they give that kid a bigger set of shoulder pads and make him play fullback, me thinks he’s traded on draft day.

And I’d like to address the simpletons who think that the Martz firing was the worst thing since Jennifer Connolly got breast reduction. He was the wrong guy for this team; a knee jerk hire by clueless head coach who would’ve grasped at any straw to save his J.O.B. For all his offensive wizardry, he alienated too many players, and his “I’m smarter than Gil Grissom” attitude just plain pi$$ed off all the rest. NOBODY else runs his system, and for good reason. How about that Red Zone scoring this year, huh? I swear, if we went “four wide outs” inside the 5 yard line just one more time, I would’ve walked all the way from SoCal to Candlestick and gone “Iron Head Hayward” right at his package! Yeah, some offensive genius.

Look kids, here’s the thing: In April, beef up the offensive line (a RT in the 6’6″ 320 range sounds about right), grab the two best DE’s in the 2nd and 4th rounds, a bruising TE who blocks first and will catch an occasional pass, dump Vernon for an extra 3rd rounder, wherein you grab your run stuffing DT. . .a couple of special teams/nickel back CB’s. . .maybe a safety, and voile! The team is right back in contention. As for free agents, well, if he’s a walk away-type this year, I say the team should go hard after Ray Lewis. Plug him in, and let Willis learn at the foot of the master. In that way, no matter who comprises the front four (YES, for the love of God! PLEASE return to the 4-3) the LB’s (Lawson, Willis and Lewis) will be dishing out punishment like Adam Sandler puts out bad movies. As for the QB. . .well, history dictates that the 1st rounder is not always the best option. Scouts: Do your homework ! A worthy QB should drop to the 3rd round.